Yageo Corp (國巨), the world’s third-largest supplier of ceramic capacitors, yesterday reported a double-digit decline in revenue for last month, as the COVID-19 outbreak stalled the full resumption of operations at its plants in China.
Consolidated revenue tumbled 13.5 percent year-on-year to NT$2.68 billion (US$88.95 million), from NT$3.3 billion, the lowest level in about two-and-a-half years. On a monthly basis, revenue slumped 18.7 percent.
Revenue in the first two months of this year totaled NT$5.99 billion, down from NT$7.88 billion in the same period last year, the company said.
“Demand remained strong in February, but the company’s capacity in China was restricted by the epidemic, which slowed the resumption of production,” Yageo said.
The company had hoped to boost its factory utilization rate to 60 to 65 percent by the end of this month.
However, as transportation restrictions remain in place in China, it now aims to lift the rate to 50 percent at the end of the month, from between 35 and 38 percent last month, it said.
“Shipments declined more than 50 percent last month from the previous month as the company saw its inventory turnover of finished goods fall to below 30 days,” Yageo said.
The company also blamed severe delays in transportation and customs declaration for the revenue decline.
Supply constraints worsened after the Lunar New Year holiday, as employees did not return to work as planned due to the lockdowns caused by the outbreak, the company said, adding that its recruitment plans were also affected.
To solve the capacity bottleneck, Yageo plans to fully utilize its factory in Kaohsiung.
To do so, the company plans to hire 1,500 workers and 100 engineers to boost production in Taiwan, it said.
Looking ahead, supply would continue to be constrained in the short term, the company said, but added that it is optimistic about revenue outlook in the long term.
Walsin Technology Corp (華新科技), a passive components maker, reported that revenue last month fell 13.4 percent year-on-year and 5.2 percent month-on-month to NT$1.91 billion, as the outbreak led to labor shortages and reduced working days.
In the first two months of this year, revenue dipped 28.71 percent annually to NT$3.93 billion, from NT$5.51 billion, it said in a statement.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
RSS